Prisoners freed across Burma. Democratic Voice of Burma. 8 April 2016. Dozens were freed from jails across Burma on Friday morning, with expectant crowds hopeful that political prisoners will join them as day goes on.Thirty were released from prison in Mandalay, while 29 were freed from Sittwe, Arakan State and groups of 17 and 30 freed from jails in the Pegu Division towns of Tharrawaddy and Taungoo, respectively. Over 100 have been released from Rangoon’s Insein Prison.
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‘State counselor’ law signed by president. Democratic Voice of Burma. 7 April 2016. A law to create the powerful new position of “state counselor” was signed by Burma’s President Htin Kyaw on Wednesday and will now go to the Union Parliament for final approval, according to President’s Office spokesperson Zaw Htay.
The law, which will give National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi a position similar to that of prime minister, was passed by both houses of parliament earlier this week.
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Myanmar’s new president might not be Aung San Suu Kyi, but he does represent progress. By Maung Zarni. The Guardian. Thursday 17 March 2016.
For the first time in decades, the Burmese people have a civilian president. Now they must weather the clash of military and opposition proxies to come.
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Myanmar parliament elects Htin Kyaw as first civilian president in 53 years. By Oliver Holmes. The Guardian. Tuesday 15 March 2016. Myanmar’s parliament has elected Htin Kyaw as the country’s first non-military president since the army took power in a 1962 coup. A close adviser and loyal friend to Aung San Suu Kyi, the 69-year-old was nominated by the National League for Democracy party last week and voted into the presidency by parliament.
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NLD’s Ethnic Nominees Lauded as Step Toward National Reconciliation. The Irrawaddy. Thursday 10 March 2016. The National League for Democracy’s (NLD) nominations for the presidency have been commended for promoting national reconciliation. On Thursday morning, ethnic Burman-Mon Htin Kyaw and ethnic Chin Henry Van Thio were revealed as the NLD’s nominees for the presidency. The two men will be put to a vote in the Union Parliament, along with a nominee from the military, who has not yet been named. The winner will become Burma’s president and the other two will be the vice presidents.
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Aung San Suu Kyi will not be president of Myanmar, parliament confirms. The Guardian. Thursday 10 March 2016. Myanmar’s new parliament has nominated a senior aide to Aung San Suu Kyi to be its first democratically elected president in half a century. Htin Kyaw, a 69-year-old economics graduate, writer and close adviser to the nation’s democracy icon, was formally put forward for the vice-presidential position during a session at the lower house on Thursday morning. …. Henry Van Thio, an ethnic minority Chin candidate, was also nominated by the NLD in parliament’s upper house, and a further candidate will be chosen by the military.
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Aung San Suu Kyi aide nominated as Myanmar president. Al Jazeera. Thursday 10 March 2016. Htin Kyaw on course to become head of state as democracy icon barred from post looks to rule through a trusted proxy. … Three presidential candidates will be nominated on Thursday - one by the lower house of parliament, one by the upper house, and one by the military bloc. The constitution gives the armed forces a quarter of seats in both houses. Htin Kyaw, an Oxford graduate with a degree in economics, was nominated from the lower house. Henry Van Thio, an MP of the ethnic Chin minority, is the NLD's nominee from the upper house.
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Myanmar’s military goes to ‘democracy school’ with civilian MPs. The Guardian Weekly. 4 February 2016. A five day course brings together generals and colonels with elected MPs and teaches them how to run a country.
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Sittwe: A City Divided. By Moe Myint. The Irrawaddy. Thursday, March 3, 2016. It has been more than three years since riots shook Arakan State, displacing 140,000, due to religiously motivated violence. Among those affected were members of the region’s ethnic Buddhist Arakanese majority and a disproportionate number of the Muslim Rohingya minority, who are denied citizenship and labeled as “Bengali” migrants by the Burmese government.
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NLD MPs to be chief ministers of all states and divisions. Democratic Voice of Burma. 3 March 2016. The election-winning National League for Democracy (NLD) will install its own MPs as the chief ministers of Burma’s 14 state and divisions, a party spokesperson has said.
Win Htein, an NLD central executive committee member, said the party has internally nominated MPs for the roles that permit unparalleled control over political and economic decision making in a state of division.
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Australian firm strikes record Burma offshore gas reserve. Democratic Voice of Burma. 5 January 2016. An international petroleum company has struck a record deposit of natural gas off the coast of Burma’s southern Irrawaddy Division.The discovery is the largest gas reserve in the history of offshore exploration in Burma, according to Naypyidaw. Minerals giant Woodside announced the find to the Australian Stock Exchange with a statement on Monday. It comes after the firm was awarded an offshore exploratory concessions by the Burmese government.
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9 killed, over 100 injured as strong quake hits North-East. The Indian Express. January 4, 2016. The earthquake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter Scale, occurred at 4.37 a.m and had its epicentre in Manipur's Tamenglong district bordering. Bangladesh, Myanmar and Bhutan felt the quake too.
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Who’s Who in Burma: 2015. The Irrawaddy. Thursday, December 31, 2015. The Irrawaddy outlines some of the country’s most renowned, respected or notorious figures and groups, from politics, the military, business and other sectors, who were prominent voices in 2015.
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Why the BJP is gaining popularity in some parts of minority-dominated Mizoram. Scroll-in. Sunday 20 December 2015. Some communities in the state believe that the saffron party can help them form their own Union Territories. But the party's own state unit is wary of these demands.
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Burma to pick next president on 10 March. Democratic Voice of Burma. 1 March 2016 Parliamentarians will nominate three candidates for Burma’s presidency on 10 March, ending months of political horse-trading over the office of the country’s first democratically elected leader.
The date for the nomination process, announced by Union Parliament speaker Mahn Win Khaing on Tuesday, falls a week earlier than previously anticipated. The election-winning National League for Democracy (NLD) will begin its five-year governmental term on 1 April.
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Myanmar’s parliament awash with colour as Aung San Suu Kyi ushers in a new era. The Guardian. 1 February 2016. Aung San Suu Kyi chose to enter parliament through a small side entrance, and sat expressionless at the front corner with a muted appearance that belied the extraordinary significance of the quarter-century struggle she had led to get here. Myanmar’s lower house was blanketed in light orange, the colour worn by her National League for Democracy (NLD) party members, who now have a majority in parliament after decades of military-dominated rule.
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China's drug habit fuels return of the Golden Triangle. BBC News. 17 September 2015. By the end of this year Myanmar should have been free of narcotics. Instead, production of opium is soaring and the East Asian country, once part of the fabled Golden Triangle, is the second largest producer in the world. Proposing a toast at the end of a successful meeting is not an unusual practice in many parts of the world. A handshake suffices for most people. For others it may involve knocking back a glass of the local hooch.In Chin state, those attending a village meeting on agricultural development are invited to take a hit of opium.
A rusty tobacco tin is passed round as village elders, farmers and even the staff of a local non-government organisation (NGO) use a toothpick to scoop up a tiny dark, gooey pellet of raw opium - and swallow.
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Suu Kyi Tipped to Meet Army Chief in Coming Weeks. The Irrawaddy. Tuesday, January 5, 2016. National League for Democracy (NLD) chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi is tipped to meet Burma Army chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing in the coming weeks, sources close to the government and opposition suggest, the pair’s second dialogue since the Nov. 8 general election. The peace process will reportedly be high on the agenda, with political dialogue, set to be attended by some 700 delegates, to begin on Jan. 12.
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Army Chief Defends Civil Conflict as a ‘Just War’. By Tin Htet Paing & Saw Yan Naing. The Irrawaddy.| Tuesday, January 5, 2016. The commander-in-chief of the Burma Army on Monday defended the nation’s ongoing civil conflict as a “just war” geared toward stability of the nation, remarks made on the same day the incoming leadership vowed to make peace its top priority. Speaking at a ceremony honoring soldiers for their service on Burma’s Independence Day, Jan. 4, Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said the country’s ongoing civil war was for the benefit of the nation’s citizens.
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